


No Second Dates

by Phosphorite



Category: Free!
Genre: Established Relationship, First Dates, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2015-11-22
Packaged: 2018-05-02 21:40:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5264612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phosphorite/pseuds/Phosphorite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Do you ever wonder about what it would be like to meet for the first time, if we hadn't already met in the past? What kind of an impression you would get?"</p><p>(Or, the one where theoretical Rin meets theoretical Haruka on a theoretical First Date, and everything is kind of a trainwreck from the start.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Second Dates

**Author's Note:**

> **Rinharu Week Day 1: Blue: Firsts**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> (it’s not the 23rd where I live quite yet but since it will be near impossible for me to post this when it is, I’m throwing it out now)
> 
> I didn’t actually mean to write anything for RHWeek this year, but since I got asked to (?? what in the), I realized the first day prompt was perfect for an idea I’ve had lying around. So, I decided to finish it while working on my other stuff. It’s actually a sequel to [10 Points for Collateral Damage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3237806), but also works as a standalone story.
> 
> Enjoy, or not, etc.

 

 

 

"Do you ever wonder about what it would be like to meet for the first time?"

Rin pauses for a good four, five seconds to make sure Haruka's question isn't rhetorical. Sometimes Rin likes to pretend they are –like Do you think it'll take long until they invent underwater Skype or When you really think about it, wouldn't all humans benefit from eight arms–, but this time Haruka's face remains pensive long after Rin initially shrugs the comment off.

"Kinda late for that now," Rin comments, turning a page in his magazine right in Haruka's face.

"No, I mean, _again_ ," Haruka says, and his gesture swats the entire article on vegetable protein out of Rin's hands, "If we hadn't already met. In the past."

"I'm probably not the nerd you should consult on time-travel," Rin mutters, but doesn't have the heart to push Haruka away. Draped across his thighs, it would be a lot like fending off a lethargic cat; it's Haruka's turn to visit him in Australia, and the long flight always leaves Haruka drowsy and bored.

"No, Rin–– why are you so stupid?"

Oh, and cranky. Can't forget cranky. 

"I mean, if we'd never known each other, and then met for the first time," Haruka adds then, trying to remain calm despite Rin's obtuseness, "What kind of an impression would you get?"

Rin lifts a brow. "You mean, from you?"

Haruka gives an eager nod, with a funny kind of sincerity to the question evident on his face; it makes Rin sigh, if only to hide how much it also makes him want to kiss him on the forehead for being ridiculous and cute. (Often both, at the same time, which is the worst of all.)

"Well, who knows?" he goes on, stretching out his arms as though lost in thought, "I guess that depends. Where would I run into you? At a competition? Some kind of event? Randomly passing you by on the street?"

Haruka turns his gaze briefly. When he speaks, the words come out blurred through a layer of embarrassment.

"...a date," is what Rin makes out of the response, but in a matter of moments Haruka's entire head yanks back with silent defiance. "If we were out on a date."

Rin blinks. "Like, a _first_ date?"

There's no more embarrassment left, just curiosity. "Yeah."

"That's..." Rin begins, genuinely puzzled by the thought; it seems more or less impossible that he would ever run into Nanase Haruka for the first time _on a date_ , but for whatever reason Haruka seems adamant in following the thought through. "I guess... that would depend on the date. Where would I have met you anyway? On Tinder?"

This time it's Haruka's turn to blink. "What?"

"Never mind," Rin shakes his head hastily, _not_ looking forward to explaining his teammates' most favourite pastime to someone as socially stunted as Haruka. "Okay, look. Give me your phone, I'll demonstrate."

Cautiously, Haruka grabs his phone from the nightstand, and hands it over to Rin. It doesn't take long for Rin to scroll through Haruka's photo roll, finally stopping at a selfie Haruka had taken half-accidentally at the beach a few months ago. It's a little out of focus, but Haruka's expression is unusually unguarded and the combination of sea-ruffled hair and exposed collarbone is enough for Rin to come to a halt at once.

"There," Rin says, pointing at the photo on the screen. "Imagine I saw this picture somewhere –say, a service where people browse through each other's photos to find a match–, I would think you were cute enough to send a private message to."

"Why would anyone care about a service like that," Haruka predictably comments, but Rin waves it off; instead, he pulls out his own phone and tosses it over to Haruka.

"Now you do it," he instructs, leaning over Haruka's shoulder, "Which of these photos would rouse your interest enough to approach me, if you'd never met me before?"

There's a far greater array of pictures to choose from, of course. Just the amount of selfies is kind of overwhelming in retrospect, but Haruka never chooses one; rather, when he stops, it's on a picture Rin remembers Makoto having taken after they dragged him on a ferry towards Milsons Point one warm evening in August.

It's not one of the photos where Rin purposefully poses with the Harbor bridge as the backdrop. It's not the one where he specifically makes a face either, almost swayed off said pose by one of the larger waves. No, the picture that catches Haruka's attention is the one between regular snaps, with Rin's head in profile as laughter makes his shoulders hunch forward, the light of the slowly setting sun reflected on his hair like a halo.

"...That one," Haruka mutters, barely audible and refusing to meet Rin's gaze, "...This is the you I'd choose."

 _Oh_ , Rin wants to say but all he does is take a deep breath; he's not sure why Haruka's privacy is so contagious all of a sudden, but he swallows to hide the sudden fluster.

"...Alright, well, now we've made it to a match," he trumps over the embarrassment, keeping his tone light, "Which means, we'd have to message each other next. So, let's say I sent you some kind of text, like..."

He grabs his phone back from Haruka, and fires out a message that makes Haruka's phone vibrate on cue.

 _"How would you feel about going out for dinner sometime?_ " Haruka reads out loud, lifting a brow at Rin, "...Insightful."

"It's called _neutral_ ," Rin groans, shoving him on the shoulder, "I'm trying to make a good impression, right? I don't want to sound like a weirdo before we've even officially met."

"Oh," Haruka frowns. "Alright."

He proceeds to stare at the message, then switches his phone on lock-mode and puts it away. Rin gives him an incredulous look.

"What, you're not going to answer that?"

"Why?" Haruka appears genuinely puzzled at his disapproval. "Should I?"

"Uh, _yeah_ ," Rin gestures equally baffled, "The guy you just matched with sent you a message, asking you out. When were you _thinking_ of giving him a response?"

Haruka glances back at his phone.

"I don't know. In a few days?"

" _..._ And what kind of a first impression do you think _that_ would give?!"

It's kind of predictable, the way Haruka's eyes narrow at the accusatory tone; right on cue, Rin takes a deep breath, switching to a less hostile approach to get his point across. It's not the first, and it definitely won't be the last time he's attempted to explain how _normal people_ work in the _real world_ , but in the time they've been dating since graduation he's slowly mastered how the Japanese-Haruka-Japanese dictionary works.

"Okay, okay," Rin sighs, but it comes tinted with laughter, "I know it normally takes you like, five days to reply to anyone's messages, but this–– it's different, alright? Trust me. If you didn't send him a message within twenty-four hours, he would just think you weren't interested, and not ask again."

Once more, Haruka fails to see the logic. "...Why? But I matched with him, didn't I?"

Rin gives him a grimace. "Hey, do you think someone who looks like that usually has to _wait_ for response?"

Okay, it's kind of a joke, since the real version is closer to _you think theoretical Rin isn't just as self-conscious as I am_ , but Rin doesn't want to have to say that aloud.

"Besides, you might not be the only one he matched with," he goes on, opting for reason instead. "What if someone _else_ replied, and he went on a date with them while you sat in your kitchen contemplating the perfect angle to salt grilled fish?"

The suggestion of _someone else_ again makes Haruka's eyes narrow, but the defensiveness is different this time around.

"...I don't chase after anyone," he says, shrugging, "If he was that impatient and conceited, then he _should_ go on a different date. He really should feel flattered I matched with him at all."

Rin wants to groan.

"So basically, we would never actually make it onto this first date, since you'd think I was a self-centered idiot and I'd assume you were kind of an ass." He pauses. "Wait, how is that different from how we _did_ meet, as kids...?"

" _Fine_ ," Haruka cuts him off abruptly, shoving Rin out of the way. Picking his phone back up, the sound of an incoming message soon makes Rin's phone twirl.

" _Ok_ ," Rin reads aloud, lifting a brow. "Wow, you should curb your enthusiasm a bit, theoretical Rin might think you're actually looking forward to going out with him."

Haruka's silent glare is enough to imply what said theoretical Rin can do with said thoughts –or rather, where to insert them sideways– but his willingness to accommodate for the hypothetical scenario is more than enough for Rin to crack a genuine smile.

"Well, you said yes," he congratulates Haruka, "I admit that theoretical Rin might still feel a bit self-conscious about his chances because of your Spartan wording, but thanks to that profile picture of yours I think he'd try his luck anyway."

"So what happens now?" Haruka asks, and Rin cannot help the wryness that snakes in his smile as he snakes his arm around Haruka's shoulder.

"Now? We go on our first date."

 

 

 

Of course it's ridiculous. In a way, that's sort of the point. Because this whole thing, it also turns out to be _fun_ ; the plans he makes in advance, and how it clearly annoys Haruka to be kept in the dark before the weekend finally rolls in and they have the time to go out on their _First Date_.

"I'm just trying to be authentic," Rin insists, when the only information he shares is via a _Meet me at the Circular Quay station at 2 pm_ text. "Theoretical Rin wouldn't tell you where he's taking you, so neither will I."

"I already don't like him," Haruka grumbles, but it's as stubborn a complaint as he makes. Amazingly, he even agrees to what Rin thought might earn him an eye-roll so heavy it'd make Haruka pass out – that the two of them must take separate routes to the station, because they shouldn't see what the other one is wearing in advance.

" _Authenticity_ ," Rin stresses like a buzz-word, but the truth is that he's also... interested in this whole mindgame of Haruka-who-is-not-his-Haruka; the kind of Haruka who, once upon a time, might have had to think about something as trivial as _what would I wear if I had to impress someone_ –– no, even more to the point, _what would I wear if I had to impress Rin_. 

Of course, he might just turn up naked in an apron. You never know for sure.

But that Saturday Rin waits by the foot of the station, and the person who emerges down the stairs is not a boy who cared so little that he forgot to wear clothes. Nothing about Haruka specifically screams _I'm going on a date_ , but that's only if you don't know what to look for: the few extra moments spent on picking out a shirt (one Gou bought, insisting it was "properly tailored to fit his shoulders"), or the deliberate way his chinos match in shade (that might have been Rei), even the bracelet on his right wrist (Makoto got him that one last year).

Normally, Haruka wouldn't bother with any of this, as unnoticeable as it might appear to anyone else. It's hard to fight back a smile the moment Haruka lifts his eyes, and catches Rin leaning at one of the pillars.

"Hey," Rin says, trying to sound as aloof as possible before the following words leave his mouth, "So... uh, you're... you must be Haruka."

"Haru," Haruka snaps without missing a beat, but takes two extra beats to register Rin's sentence. His brow furrows, but only for a second; the next breath Haruka draws in leaves in a sigh. "...Yeah. I am."

"Well, _Haru_ ," Rin says, finding it easier to carry the charade when Haruka's more flustered by it than he is, "I'm glad you showed up. As you might have already guessed, I'm Rin."

Haruka frowns again. "This is weird."

"Come on, nobody's gonna understand us," Rin counters, nodding at the stream of English-speaking people wading by, "It doesn't matter. It's just a game."

Something in Haruka's eyes lights up at that, like a word made out of magic: ever since their ridiculous kissing game back in Tokyo, it's been surprisingly easy to get him to dedicate to any weird activity as long as he can theoretically beat Rin.

"Okay." With a tilt of his chin, Haruka gets back into character. "Hi."

"So, I was thinking we could go have lunch somewhere," Rin goes on, putting on the kind of voice he uses whenever their swim team meets new people. He's been told there's a radiance to his smile, with enough of an arrogance to keep the other person on their toes; whether that counts as flirtatious or not, well, he's about to find out.

"I never asked how long you've been staying in Sydney, but I took the liberty of picking out a place that serves pretty excellent fish," he adds, feeling very smart with a knowledgeable grin, "...You know, just a hunch, based on your profile photo at the beach."

 _One point for me_ , Rin thinks while drawing a sip from the _oh so casual_ take-away coffee he's used as a way to underline how _casual_ he is –you know, for a _casual_ first date–, right until the moment he glances back at Haruka, and sees him lift a challenging brow.

"Sorry," Haruka says in calm response. "I'm a vegetarian."

Rin nearly sprays Haruka's shirt with an entire mouthful of coffee, choking back his disbelief.

"You're _WHAT?!_ "

"It means––" Haruka begins, but Rin hastily waves him off.

"I know what it means, you dolt," he snaps, all _casualness_ evaporating in a puff of wistful thinking, "And I know for a freaking fact that you're _not_ one."

Haruka tilts his head. "How would you know? You never asked."

There is enough of a challenge to his voice, though, for Rin to realize none of this is coincidental; that this is, as it happens, Haruka's way of throwing him a curveball. _If you plan on keeping me in the dark, don't think you can use what you know about me_ , Haruka's steely expression seems to be saying, and to his credit, Rin can definitely see his point.

With a cough, he recomposes himself, then gestures at Haruka like take two on a TV commercial. "Alright, let's... Let's try that again. So you're a vegetarian then, huh?"

Haruka nods.

"Well, in that case you're in luck," Rin says, insistent on not letting Haruka's stunt ruin his careful planning, "Because Sydney happens to be an amazing city for anyone who doesn't eat meat."

"Or dairy."

"Oh for crying out––" Rin stops short of literally pulling at his own hair. "Yeah, alright, be a freaking vegan all you like, okay?! It still won't take me longer than twenty minutes to find you somewhere to eat, _Haru_."

"Alright then," Haruka says, coolly confronting Rin's energy, "I look forward to it, _Rin_."

"You'd damn better," Rin grumbles; but a trace of amusement tugs on Haruka's lips, and it makes it near impossible for Rin to swallow his own smile.

 

 

 

"Well," Haruka says, staring at his sweet potato fries, "This was unexpected."

"Sorry," Rin ruffles the back of his head sheepishly, "...I know there's like, tons of places around here. But I kinda panicked and this was the only place I could think of on the fly."

 _Literally_ _on the fly_ , Rin thinks, the display sign for Lord of the Fries looming down on him at George Street; it's not quite the atmospheric lunch date he had planned for the two of them, but at the very least it should score him a few points with theoretical Haruka's theoretical dietary habits.

"Honesty," Haruka nods, and doesn't seem at all bothered to have ended up with a paper bag filled with vegan fast food. "I appreciate that."

"We might as well head out towards The Rocks," Rin suggests, because the world has yet to rob him off the backdrop for any great date, "There's... well, you don't seem that into standard methods of communication, so there's probably a lot of other things I don't know about you yet. We could talk while we walk."

In a sense, the longer they keep up the game, the easier it gets. Talking to Haruka like a stranger is still bizarre, sure, but it's decidedly less weird if Rin simply doesn't think about him as his boyfriend – instead, as he comes to find out, Haruka's apparently in Australia for a holiday, and one of his friends matched him with Rin as a joke. ( _Sure._ )

"To be fair," Haruka shrugs, delivering a (mostly) believable performance with his lie, "Yamazaki has tried getting back at me ever since I made him fix an air conditioner I intentionally broke."

"...I'm just going to ignore all the ways in which you just outed yourself as a _complete weirdo_ ," Rin says, pretending not to remember the blood-curdling scream Sousuke let out on the day Haruka jammed an Iwatobi-chan figure in his AC, "And ask about something normal. Like... what do you do? Apart from going on dates set up by your friends slash part-time enemies, I mean."

They hurry along across the street, the street lights still changing colour faster than Rin would like. When Haruka shoots him a glance over his shoulder, it's a little reserved.

"Well, I swim."

" _No way_ ," Rin feigns surprise, "Me too!"

Yeah, there's the familiar eye-roll, subtle yet scathing.

"I mean, I... I'm going to be a professional swimmer," Haruka goes on, but sounds less defensive once they reach a wider street, with less tourists about to walk him over. On instinct, Rin finds himself drawing closer, but lets his hand hover a safe distance from Haruka's arm.

"Why, think you're good enough to make it to the _Olympics_ one day?" he counters, an intentional tease in his voice; the side of Haruka's mouth scrunches up, but he doesn't sound bothered when he simply says:

"Sure."

This time, Rin gives Haruka's arm a playful shove. (He's allowed to do that, right? It counts as flirting, right?)

"Confidence," he mimics Haruka from before, "I appreciate that."

At his playfulness, Haruka almost catches Rin's hand by habit, but remembers their game with a second's delay. Straightening up, he lets his eyes trail the street ahead as he speaks: "...I've been to the Olympic pool at the Aquatic Centre a few times. A... well, someone I know keeps dragging me there for practice, whenever I'm in Sydney. But I like it there."

 _I KNEW IT_ , Rin wants to yell in his face, but he clears his throat, wondering how far he can stretch this scene. "Yeah? Another vengeful friend?"

Haruka's brow furrows, before he shrugs. "Well, he often hogs the blankets and sneaks extra protein in my breakfast, if that counts."

"...I'm also going to ignore all the ways in which you just outed yourself as _not single_ ," Rin groans, hand lingering on Haruka's shoulder like an after-thought. "Come on, theoretical Rin is trying his hardest to make small-talk here. You should cut him some slack."

"I can do small-talk," Haruka counters, a little offended at Rin's implication that he's ruining their game on purpose; when Rin gives him a _Look_ , Haruka narrows his eyes and proceeds to roll down one of his shirt sleeves. (The shirt, it really does fit pretty great. Rin should send his sister a thank you card.)

"I want to know your thoughts on..." Haruka continues, reading off what appears to be a list written on his forearm, "Uh... _sustainable fishing._ "

"What?" Rin says, and Haruka frowns, moving further down on his arm.

"Or, _Kazimir Malevich, a Russian Suprematist painter_. Maybe _Matsuyama Yuuzou, a lieutenant general in the Japanese army in World War II._ "

"Haru––"

"...How about _fire hydrants._ Or _dermatophagia._ Your thoughts on _legumes._ "

"What the hell, Haru?!" Rin cuts him off before Haruka gets to the more nonsensical part of his list, "Did you just google random topics online?!"

"No," Haruka denies, but this vehemence dissolves as soon as he adds, "...Just Wikipedia articles at random."

Rin is doing his best not to snort and chortle at the same time, because the resulting sound would be the un-coolest thing in the world.

He opts for an exasperated face instead. "Why not just ask someone about the kind of stuff people _actually_ talk about on dates?"

"Makoto suggested we discuss the alarming state of the whaling industry," Haruka mutters, at which Rin wants to point out that Makoto kind of sounds like he had never been on a date in his life. Then again, it's not like Rin has much room to talk, having spent most of his eligible years too unhinged by a certain reclusive idiot to even consider going out with someone else.

Rin sighs, but there's a laughter that bubbles up underneath his desire to tell Haruka how hopeless they both are at this.

"To your credit, all of that did make you sound sort of cultured," he smiles, lightly touching Haruka's wrist, "I mean, completely whacked out and potentially scary, sure, but cultured nonetheless."

"You got me junk food," Haruka notes duly, gesturing at the slowly depleted bag, "It wasn't a very high ladder of sophistication to climb."

" _Vegan_ junk food," Rin argues, and Haruka breaks character long enough to fling the rest of his sweet potato fries at Rin's head. 

 

 

 

By the time they actually reach The Rocks, the sun is already starting to set.

Not because it's a long route from George Street to the place Rin has in mind, but because the two of them stop every once in a while – to talk about the neighborhood, pointing out locations they've visited in the past. It's... kind of nice, being able to use their _First Date_ as an excuse to reminisce; it's a privilege in itself to see that rare fondness setting on Haruka's face, talking about the first time he came to Australia, and how all of it felt like walking through a dream.

"A nightmare, sometimes," Haruka adds softly, the railing of Rin's chosen lookout point digging into his back, "But I didn't feel alone then, either. I think... it was because he knew what it was like."

Behind Haruka, the Opera House stands tall in the horizon, and the city of warm lights to its right.

"The ever-elusive Olympic park guy who also tampers with your breakfast, huh," Rin comments, resisting the urge to break into a full smile. "Sounds like I'm gonna have to pull out all the stops to compete with that."

"If you've got a private pool near where you live, I can dump him right now over a text," Haruka shrugs, and only half-winces when the heel of Rin's foot finds his ankle.

"Even with all the points I scored with you today, seems my natural charm just isn't enough," Rin sighs theatrically, draping over the railing next to Haruka. "I suppose that means there won't be a second date, then."

It's an attempt at being facetious, but the sullen cloud that appears over Haruka's head is clearly not in on the joke.

"...So you wouldn't go out with me again."

In a sense, Rin's not sure what's making Haruka so troubled by the thought; after all, it's Haruka who has been throwing curveballs at Rin all day. Even so, there's something almost disappointed in the way Haruka's shoulders lurch forward, a flatness in his voice as Haruka adds:

"...If we met as we are now, I guess none of this would work."

_Oh._

And it's here that Rin realizes, that _this_ has been Haruka's goal – instead of a simple game of scoring points with the right or wrong answers, this whole afternoon has actually been a test of Rin's resilience, to see if even a different version of Rin would put up with the bizarre mess that is Nanase Haruka.

Rin takes a deep breath, then exhales.

He nudges Haruka with his elbow, and when he speaks there is no trace of theoretical Rin in his voice. 

"H, hey. Haru. You know that's not–– Come on."

Leaning over, Rin lets his lips brush at Haruka's ear, to underline what follows. "Why do you think I'd ever _need_ a second date?" 

It's enough to make Haruka glance back, bewilderment on his face; as Rin pulls back, he suddenly finds it a lot easier to tackle honesty, even without a fake identity shielding his real self.

"Look, Haru," he shakes his head, letting the touch of his hand on Haruka's arm linger, "Don't be daft, okay? You know that I... None of it would matter, regardless of whether we met for the first time as kids, or now, or in ten years to come."

He doesn't mean for it to come out as softly, but it does.

"You know I'd fall for you at first sight, every time."

Haruka says nothing for few seconds. Then three, four, five more.

Finally, he turns his gaze, and there's a glow that trickles all the way down his neck, rivaled only by the colours that have already begun to drain in the horizon behind his back.

"You don't know that," he mutters, but there's no true defiance in it, "...Nobody knows that."

Rin doesn't stifle his smile anymore.

"Sure, it doesn't work that way with you," he laughs, and taps Haruka's forehead with his index finger before leaning back against the railing, "The you who waits five days just to respond to a single text would never jump headfirst into anything, least of all because of an unexpected chance. But even so..."

He doesn't bother hiding the mischievousness that sneaks onto his lips, either, as Rin bumps his shoulder at Haruka's own.

"Regardless of time and place, I just might be the person who would make you want to take that chance, you know."

Haruka lifts a brow, as if he wants to argue with Rin's confidence just on principle; but before long his face breaks into a subdued smile, and his eyes drift in the direction of the city by the Quays.

"Maybe," he says.

 _Maybe,_ the words linger between them, _You are the chance I continue to take_ , _every single day._

(Of course Rin knows.)

It's why there's another, sudden burst of courage in the wake of their shared silence, one that makes him lean closer again.

"...I don't know if it's against etiquette and all, but do you think theoretical Haru would mind being kissed on the first date?"

With a quick glance at the desolate lookout point around them, Haruka shrugs.

"I don't think there's anyone around to report you to the dating authorities if you do," he says, and Rin only makes his half-sincere complaint up to _Know what you don't score on? Romantic comebacks_ , before Haruka yanks him by the arm and shuts him up with that kiss.

 

 

 

"Do you ever wonder about what it would be like to meet for the second time?"

Rin pauses for a good four, five seconds to make sure Haruka's question isn't rhetorical. No, he pauses to make sure they haven’t magically teleported a few days into the past on accident, but the shirt Haruka’s wearing is different from before. (Rin asked his sister about the brand. Then he proceeded to buy Haruka three.)

“What, you still wondering about that second date?” he asks, then shifts before Haruka can swat the magazine off his hand again, “Because I’m pretty sure theoretical Rin knows you’re fixated on some other guy. After all, you spent their entire day together talking about the places you’d been to. With him.”

Haruka pulls a face, then shakes his head.

“No, I mean… What happens after. You said the way we met didn’t matter. But…“

He pauses, frowns a little, then glances away. “Even if the first time around you felt something, just because you did… What if the second time around it was different from the first?”

The magazine tears a little as it hits Haruka on the head; really, they should make them out of sturdier paper.

“Why are you so stupid?” Rin groans in an intentional throwback to the first time they had this conversation, “Sure, there’s a chance I’d look at theoretical Haruka and think, _Oh god, I’ve made a terrible mistake_. Hell, you’d probably not waste five minutes thinking the same. But you already know that doesn’t matter either.”

“How come?” Haruka still insists, but this time all Rin does is spread out his arms, gesturing at himself, then at Haruka; and while it takes a few moments for the implication to sink in, at long last recognition dawns on Haruka’s face.

No, in the end it’s simple; far simpler than blaming everything on luck, or any trainwreck of a second date. Because it’s never a choice to feel a certain way, but to take a chance most certainly is;

_and either one of you could have chosen anything_

_but what you chose was_ **_this_** _._

 

 

 


End file.
